There was once a man who grew up in a fishing village. This man lived in this small, bustling village his entire life and was a wealthy master fisherman.  One day his home caught fire and burned to the ground destroying all of his possessions. The man was left penny less and desperate. With no money and no fishing equipment the man’s neighbors decided that he was a lost cause and assumed that he would soon be a beggar on the streets. They secretly waited and watched so they could rejoice in his final status as a beggar. 

Every day that the other fishermen in the town walked by the once wealthy man’s ruined home they saw him bent over on his knees in the dirt grunting and banging his hands at the earth. This went on for many days and weeks to the delight of his fellow fishermen. Eventually they began to yell at the once wealthy man “Why not just move away to the ruins outside of town and die? You are a master fisherman with excellent equipment aren’t you? Where is it? Where are the best fishing supplies money can buy? Why don’t you come to the water and fish? Show us again how it’s done?”  Each day the once wealthy man kept wallowing in the dirt and grovelling at the earth seemingly deaf to their words and each day the local fishermen harassed him. He only moved out of the dirt at night to quietly rummage through his neighbors trash looking for kitchen scraps. 

One day, a local fisherman was walking by the once wealthy man’s ruined house and saw that he was gone. He stood on his tip toes straining to look past the ruins of the enormous home to see if the man had simply moved the location of his grovelling but he saw no one. He ran to tell the other fisherman that the once wealthy man had finally left to go and die but on his way to the waterside he received a shock. The once wealthy man was riding toward him a top a beautiful horse and dressed in fine clothes once again. The local fisherman called out “What happened to you?” The once wealthy fisherman stopped his horse and said “While you all laughed and mocked me I was busy. At night while you ate exotic imported produce in your homes with your family I went through the town trash and collected scraps and seeds. I planted each seed carefully and tended them on my knees everyday. My first harvest has come in and I have made a fortune selling my beautiful exotic produce grown from the trash. I have brought more fields and am planting more produce. You all continue to fish so you can sell those fish to buy exotic produce and throw away the rubish all while judging my worth. I saw what you never could see in that rubish and now I am enjoying that reward.”

We can all relate to the wealthy man in this story, cant we? We have been counted out and undervalued. Maybe we had an idea that grabbed us so completely that we ran and excitedly told a friend or family member only to receive a lack luster response and to be told that the idea was foolish. During the NPR hit podcast How I Built This, the billionaire Haim Saban,  creator of the children’s show The Mighty Morphing Power Rangers is quoted as saying that if everyone told him an idea was impossible or foolish he knew for sure that he was on to something really dynamic and special!

There is a wealth of potential in you that no person can judge. They can’t judge you because they didn’t make you in their image and likeness. You were made in the image and likeness off All Potential, God. Therefore He is the only one who can judge your worth. The awesome news is that He judges your worth based on Himself. Think about any other designer or creator. The maker of the iPhone, Steve Jobs, judged it’s worth based on the ideas that he and his team designed into the phone. This assessment determined how Job’s would price, advertise and promote the phone. It also determined the environment that Job’s would design for the phone.  

The creation doesn’t dictate it’s value. The creator builds value into the creation through their own ideas. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10 NIV. When God looks at you He sees things that others ignore because He doesn’t see just you. He sees Himself. Therefore, impossible isn’t a problem. If you can envision it then you can accomplish it because you had the necessary ideas built into your design. 

I hope this gives you courage to ignore what others say and to dream great big dreams!

Do you think you’ve ever sold your worth short? If you had to guess, what value do you think God sees in you that may have been ignored to date? Share your experiences below! 

If you’d like to know more about being made in God’s image check out my book: Kingdom Perspectives on Image and Beauty 

Or listen to an audio on Kingdom Perspectives on Image and Beauty. 

To understand how value and worth affect purpose check out the post How to Discover Your Purpose!
LOVE YALL!

Danita.